Shock Corridor

Crime reporter Johnny Barratt (Peter Breck) wants to win the Pulitzer prize. He convinces his editor, Swanee (William Zuckert), to let him try to get in by solving the murder of a man named Sloane who resided in a mental hospital. With the guidance of Swanee's psychiatrist friend Dr. Fong (Philip Ahn), Johnny learns how to pass himself off as insane enough to be committed to the hospital. His stripper girlfriend Cathy (Constance Towers) thinks Johnny's plan is absurd, but agrees to help him when he threatens to break up with her. Cathy tells the police that she is Johnny's sister and that he has been making incestuous advances toward her. Johnny is arrested and questioned by Dr. Cristo (John Matthews). He asks exactly what Dr. Fong predicted and Johnny has the answers waiting. Cristo is convinced that Johnny needs sexual therapy. Johnny is admitted to the hospital. Two attendants in the men's ward are Wilkes (Chuck Roberson), a seemingly nice guy, and Lloyd. who is downright mean out of frustration; he doesn't think that any patients can be cured. Johnny talks to Stuart (James Best) one of three patients who were witnesses to Sloan's murder. Stuart was committed there because he thinks that he is a Confederate soldier. In fact, Stuart was an American soldier who fought in the early 1950s during the Korean war but was a turncoat. When he came back to America, he was hounded by reporters and branded as a traitor which led to him mentally cracking. During a rare sane moment, Stuart tells Johnny that an attendant kills Sloane. Johnny next talks to the second patient named Trent (Hari Rhodes), who has gone insane trying to be the first black student to integrate in an all-white southern college. He now thinks that he is white and a member of the KKK. Trent is too mentally crippled to tell Johnny anything. Johnny then goes to talk to the third patient named Boden (Gene Evans), but before he can do so, Johnny's mind starts to snap. Each night, Johnny has nightmares about Cathy wanting to see other men. He is often woken up by the enormous Pagliacci (Larry Tucker), another patient who holds him down while he sings opera or stick chewing gum into Johnny's mouth. Another day or so later, Johnny is attacked my a group of nymphomaniacs. This results in Johnny getting shock treatments. Johnny is stripped down next to Trent while he shouts white supremacist rhetoric all night long. When Johnny really begins to believe that Cathy is truly his sister, Cathy gives Dr. Cristo permission to give him more shock treatments in hopes he will reveal himself and Cristo will throw him out of the hospital. All that happens is that Johnny temporarily loses his voice. It's revealed that Boden was once a genius who helped create the atomic bomb, but now he has the mind of a six-year-old child. Johnny coaxes him back to sanity by allowing him to paint his portrait. Boden reveals that Wilkes killed Sloane to cover up that he was taking sexual advantage of patients in the women's ward. Johnny sees Boden's portrait of him and like a baby becomes so angry that he beats Boden up. Boden reverts to being six-years-old. Unfortunately, Johnny at this point is too insane to remember Boden mention the murderer's name. After imaging a thunderstorm in the hall, Johnny finally remembers that Wilkes killed Sloane. He confronts and beats up Wilkes and gets him to confess to the murder in front of Cristo. In the final scene, Cathy visits Johnny who is still in the hospital. She tells him that because of the news media coverage of him solving the murder, he will get his Pulitzer prize. But Johnny at this point has gone totally insane. He can't even feel Cathy's desperate hug.